The Jurassic Book, Chapter seven
Chapter seven of The Jurassic Book. Plot By morning, Mowgli, Baloo, Kaa, Lala, Sandah, Kichi, Rusty, Marigold, Grey and Alexander were still sleeping in the tree when all of a sudden a Titanosaurus approaches and eats some tree-branches right in front them. Mowgli was the first to notice, and was awestruck by the beast. The same couldn't be said for Marigold who freaks out. "Ah! go away!" she screams waking everyone else up, who also back up from the sauropod, "it's alright, it's a vegetarian remember?" Mowgli reminds, "yeah sis, don't be a fraidy-dog" Rusty teases, earning a scorn from Lala, but Marigold nevertheless relaxes, "vegetarian, right" she mutters to herself while Mowgli cuts a tree-branch with some leaves and offers it to the titanosaur, "come on big boy, want some?" he beckons to draw it in and it fallows, getting close enough that they could touch it, "can I touch it?" Alex asks, "sure, just think of it as a big cow or something" Mowgli permits and the animals do too, at least until it backs away for some space, but Kichi didn't wanna stop yet so he climbs up a branch jutting toward the sauropod, "come on, come on" he beckons with the leaves, but instead of heeding him, it does something unexpected: it sneezed on him, the others laughed their heads off from it while the titanosaur looked apologetic, "sorry" it suddenly said, "well I forgive..." Kichi began until he realized the dinosaur just apologized, so did the others, "did you speak?" he wonders, "of course I can speak, can't all animals?" the dinosaur confirms jokingly, "who are you?" Kaa asks, "names Virgil, I've just moved into the area" the sauropod greets, "okay, I'm uh Mowgli" Mowgli introduces, "you and that other bare-bodied mammal are man-cubs aren't you?" Virgil notes, "yeah, you know what we are?" Alex asks, "up until now I've only heard stories about them, though I thought they couldn't hear animals talking, and that they live in places they personally created called villages" Virgil comments, "they do, but I was raised her in the jungle since I was a baby" Mowgli reveals, "really? I guess that explains how we can have a conversation right now" Virgil jokes and they laugh. Later the gang, plus their new friend, continue on their way. Sandah in particular can't get enough of what happened to Kichi this morning as evident by his silent giggling, which Baloo noticed. "What's so funny?" he asks, "Kichi being sneezed on earlier" Sandah chuckles reminiscing, and Baloo began giggling too, "I'm right here" Kichi growls from Alex's left-shoulder, "aw come on Kichi, it was funny" Alex says, "easy for you to say: you weren't the one smothered in dino-boogers" Kichi counters until Lala settles the feud, "alright that's enough boys" she orders, and they continue with little talk 'til Mowgli stumbles upon the shock of a lifetime, "oh my god, guys look at this" he calls and they comply, laying their eyes on a big nest full of eggshells, "it's a nest, a big one" Rusty notes, "never seen a nest this big" Kaa remarks, "it looks like it was built by something big judging by its size" Grey theorizes, "could this have been a crocodile's nest?" Baloo wonders, "not like any I've seen" Sandah admits, "I doubt it, we're nowhere near any water" Kichi points out, "I know what nest this was made by: these are dinosaur-eggs" Virgil reveals, "no way" Alex gasps, "huh, I actually thought your kind gave live birth" Lala admits, "nope" Virgil denies, "these eggs sure feel hard, not like other reptiles" Mowgli notes studying one shell he picks up, seeing how it breaks like glass when he crushes it rather than squish like a crocodile's or snake's egg: in fact they felt and look more like a bird's eggs, "wonder what species this belongs to" Marigold wonders, "well they're too small to be Titanosaurus eggs, most likely a smaller species" Virgil deduces, "they must've recently hatched, some of the shells still have amniotic-fluid in them" Kaa discovers, "than this couldn't have happened too long ago" Sandah suspects and they could see some footprints leading away from the nest: proof that some if not all the eggs hatched. Back at Council-Rock, Sura was looking out over the jungle from a ledge, worried about Mowgli, Lala, his kids and two nephews. Vermillion later joins him. "Hey" he greets, "hey" Sura returns glumly, "worried about you-know-who?" Vermillion asks, "which one?" Sura wonders confused, "Lala Mowgli, any of them, if not all at once" Vermillion shrugs, "well yeah, Mowgli, Lala, my kids and nephews mainly" Sura confirms, Vermillion nods: he kinda wished he paid another visit much sooner, mainly during his newfound son-in-law's wedding with Lala, "you really love your family don't you?" he guesses, "of course I do" Sura confirms, "wish I came by sooner, to see your marriage, and my grandkids as puppies, or whatever in Alex's case" Vermillion laments, "well you hadn't missed much: at first Lala was more interested in Mowgli than me" Sura admits, "wait what?" Vermillion gasps, "oh yeah, Lala actually started falling in the love with Mowgli, can you believe that, a wolf wanting to be a human's mate?" Sura recalls, "no" Vermillion answers with interest, "well she actually did want that, but eventually accepted that it couldn't possibly work out, I'm not sure crossbreeding is possible between wolves and humans, but I remember Bagheera saying it couldn't happen, Lala and Mowgli being together I mean" Sura describes, "I failed as a father" Vermillion laments, much to Sura's surprise, "I wouldn't say that" he objects, "but I left her after Alexander beat me in that contest to take Akela's place, and during the second time, I didn't even ask her if she wanted to join me" Vermillion recalls, "well she doesn't hate you or anything, in fact when Mowgli came back after being sent to find you after Grizzle showed up, she completely understood your devotion to your pack" Sura assured, "I guess, but I still wished I could've done some father-daughter bonding time when she was a pup, all other fathers do it" Vermillion complains, "you did what you had to do Vermillion, we all did, even Mowgli" Sura said, they sat in silence for a minute or more before Vermillion suddenly asks "hey Sura? what's it like being dad?", Sura thought about it and simply smiles, "it's something I just don't know how to describe" he answers while looking out into the sky. As for Mowgli's group, they continue in the hopes to find familiar territory, although they did emerge at a clearing with a lake, which Mowgli found familiar for some reason. "Huh, I feel like I've been here before" Mowgli notes walking out, "doesn't look familiar to me" Sandah says but sees Mowgli seemed to be in a trance, "uh Mowgli?" he asks but Mowgli doesn't answer, "what's up with him?" Alex wonders, "I think I know" Baloo suspects as he and Kaa found this area familiar too, while Mowgli continues to survey the clearing, getting strange visions in the process: in one he saw what looked like a human-tent with a seaplane near it, and when walking into the spot where he thought the tent was, he gets a vision of seeing two deer from what looked like a basket, trying to imitate it, he crawls around where another vision showed the deer heading into the jungle and he fallows, Alex and the animals fallowing him in the process, unsure why he was doing this, eventually Mowgli comes to a tree where another vision showed Kaa in it, and another snuggling up to Baloo, "you okay Mowgli?" Lala asks unknowingly startling Mowgli, "yeah, it's just that that clearing and this spot seem to remind me of something: I was seeing what looked like a tent and an airplane, then a basket with deer looking in it, and here I saw Kaa and Baloo" Mowgli explains making Kaa and Baloo get looked at, "I think we better tell him Baloo" Kaa whispers to Baloo who nods, "tell him what?" Kichi asks, "Mowgli, that clearing was where you first came to live here in the jungle" Baloo reveals shocking everyone but Kaa, especially Mowgli, who ran back to the clearing and everyone one else fallowing him, stopping when they see he was standing at the clearing, "so this is where I wound up" Mowgli concludes, then turns to his old bear and snake mentors, "but how did I get here? I couldn't have just appeared out of thin air" he asks, "that's because your parents brought you here on some human-business of theirs" Kaa answers, Mowgli looks around in awe for a moment before asking "okay, so then what happened to my parents, are they still looking for me?", Baloo and Kaa turn hesitant at this, but their pupil deserved to know, "they died" Baloo peeps, Mowgli and the others gasp, and Mowgli fell to his knees, "don't tell me: Shere Khan ate them didn't he?" he theorizes, "not exactly: true Khan and Tabaqui were stalking them, but Bagheera found them first, sadly he said they fell off a cliff when they saw him" Kaa explains, "Bagheera killed humans!?" Sandah gasps, "don't be ridiculous Sandah, I'm sure Bagheera didn't lay a finger on them" Lala objects, "he didn't, but he did accidentally scare them, which made them back up without knowing about the cliff...until it was too late" Baloo confirms, "and that's how you became the jungle-boy Mowgli" Kaa concludes while Mowgli just sat there and started crying: he wondered whatever happened to his parents, now he's finally solved that mystery, Baloo brings him into a hug, letting Mowgli cry on his chest, then Kichi jumps off of Alex and approaches, "Mowgli?" he peeps, "yes?" Mowgli responds, "I know how you feel: I'm an orphan too" Kichi admits gaining everybody's attention, "you are?" Mowgli wonders pulling Kichi into his lap, "yeah, don't take this personally but, my parents were taken from me by a human" Kichi admits causing gasps, "now you know how I felt" Sandah remarks, but Kichi scowls and the blue-wolf shuts up, "sorry, please continue" he apologizes, "anyway, one of those poachers I believe with dogs was chasing us, and all three of us fled up a tree, but my mom and dad got caught on a lasso, I barely got away: the human tried to take me too, but I fell into a stream and got swept away" Kichi explains and pauses, "that's when I ran into you" he added to Mowgli, "but I became fearful of humans, it's the reason why I bit you when you reached your hand toward me" he finished, Mowgli was shocked: he never thought about why Kichi bit him that day, but it makes sense now, "can't say I blame you Kichi, and I can relate too" Sandah says and looks at Mowgli, "Mowgli you remember what happened to my sister Dulia?" he asks and Mowgli nods, "well I have a confession to make: those same humans who killed her, also killed my parents" he reveals once again creating gasps, it's no wonder why Sandah got racial about humans, but even he felt sorry for Mowgli: had somebody told him this, he probably would have had a second opinion about the species entirely, "speaking of orphans, I also have a confession, I'm one too" Baloo admits, "you too Baloo?" Alex asks, "yes, when I was little cub, I almost fell victim to a cold-fang-trap, but my mother saved me, only to get herself caught instead, and even worse, dholes found us and attacked us, I managed to survive long enough for Akela to rescue me, but my mother and a sibling I had, weren't so lucky" Baloo describes making everyone feel sad, "I blamed myself and my rowdiness for it, it made me into who I am today" he finished, "wow" Mowgli murmurs, who knew so many of his friends were orphans. Stay tuned for The Jurassic Book, Chapter eight Notes *I decided to have Vermillion and Sura spend some quality time together, for obvious reasons. *We all know what happened to Mowgli's parents, but he probably forgot about it all since most babies who were orphaned tend to, and we've seen the same happen to Kichi's parents in the episode "The New Friend" and Baloo's mother in the episode "Cold Fang". **In a related note, I wonder what would happen if Sandah found out about Mowgli's orphaning. Would he not care and still be racial or make an exception (though he eventually did anyway)? after all he wasn't that selfish since he does care about Dulia, but whether or not he assumed humans were cruel to their own kids is anyone's guess. Gallery Category:Fanfiction